The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a notice to Indian universities to upload data about PhD scholars on their website within two months of the notice. The commission had first directed the universities to maintain a record of PhD students in a prescribed proforma and upload on their respective websites in a notice released on September 27, 2016.

Very few universities complied with the directive and hence the commission has sent a communication again to all the universities to finish the task within two months.

The commission held its 521st meeting on February 22, 2017 and decided to again notify all UGC approved universities to upload the data of PhD scholars registered with them in a provided proforma on their official website.

According to Press Trust of India, the Universities are also required to send the link of the page where this data is uploaded to UGC.

The University Grants Commission has also decided to maintain a list of such universities which fail to complete the exercise on time. The universities are required to provide details such as the name of the supervisor, Aadhaar number of the student, mode of PhD, research topic, expected date of completion of program, and details of any fellowship awarded in the proforma.

The decision to include Aadhaar details is in continuation of the central governments exercise to bring transparency in admission and educational schemes. Earlier the government made Aadhaar number mandatory for applying to various entrance examination.